登陆注册
15444900000124

第124章 VIII(1)

MEDICAL LIBRARIES.

[Dedicatory Address at the opening of the Medical Library in Boston, December 3, 1878.]

It is my appointed task, my honorable privilege, this evening, to speak of what has been done by others. No one can bring his tribute of words into the presence of great deeds, or try with them to embellish the memory of any inspiring achievement, without feeling and leaving with others a sense of their insufficiency. So felt Alexander when he compared even his adored Homer with the hero the poet had sung. So felt Webster when he contrasted the phrases of rhetoric with the eloquence of patriotism and of self-devotion. So felt Lincoln when on the field of Gettysburg he spoke those immortal words which Pericles could not nave bettered, which Aristotle could not have criticised. So felt he who wrote the epitaph of the builder of the dome which looks down on the crosses and weathercocks that glitter over London.

We are not met upon a battle-field, except so far as every laborious achievement means a victory over opposition, indifference, selfishness, faintheartedness, and that great property of mind as well as matter,--inertia. We are not met in a cathedral, except so far as every building whose walls are lined with the products of useful and ennobling thought is a temple of the Almighty, whose inspiration has given us understanding. But we have gathered within walls which bear testimony to the self-sacrificing, persevering efforts of a few young men, to whom we owe the origin and development of all that excites our admiration in this completed enterprise; and I might consider my task as finished if I contented myself with borrowing the last word of the architect's epitaph and only saying, Look around you!

The reports of the librarian have told or will tell you, in some detail, what has been accomplished since the 21st of December, 1874, when six gentlemen met at the house of Dr. Henry Ingersoll Bowditch to discuss different projects for a medical library. In less than four years from that time, by the liberality of associations and of individuals, this collection of nearly ten thousand volumes, of five thousand pamphlets, and of one hundred and twenty-five journals, regularly received,--all worthily sheltered beneath this lofty roof, --has come into being under our eyes. It has sprung up, as it were; in the night like a mushroom; it stands before us in full daylight as lusty as an oak, and promising to grow and flourish in the perennial freshness of an evergreen.

To whom does our profession owe this already large collection of books, exceeded in numbers only by four or five of the most extensive medical libraries in the country, and lodged in a building so well adapted to its present needs? We will not point out individually all those younger members of the profession who have accomplished what their fathers and elder brethren had attempted and partially achieved. We need not write their names on these walls, after the fashion of those civic dignitaries who immortalize themselves on tablets of marble and gates of iron. But their contemporaries know them well, and their descendants will not forget them,--the men who first met together, the men who have given their time and their money, the faithful workers, worthy associates of the strenuous agitator who gave no sleep to his eyes, no slumber to his eyelids, until he had gained his ends; the untiring, imperturbable, tenacious, irrepressible, all-subduing agitator who neither rested nor let others rest until the success of the project was assured. If, against his injunctions, I name Dr. James Read Chadwick, it is only my revenge for his having kept me awake so often and so long while he was urging on the undertaking in which he has been preeminently active and triumphantly successful.

We must not forget the various medical libraries which preceded this: that of an earlier period, when Boston contained about seventy regular practitioners, the collection afterwards transferred to the Boston Athenaeum; the two collections belonging to the University; the Treadwell Library at the Massachusetts General Hospital; the collections of the two societies, that for Medical Improvement and that for Medical Observation; and more especially the ten thousand volumes relating to medicine belonging to our noble public city library,--too many blossoms on the tree of knowledge, perhaps, for the best fruit to ripen. But the Massachusetts Medical Society now numbers nearly four hundred members in the city of Boston. The time had arrived for a new and larger movement. There was needed a place to which every respectable member of the medical profession could obtain easy access; where, under one roof, all might find the special information they were seeking; where the latest medical intelligence should be spread out daily as the shipping news is posted on the bulletins of the exchange; where men engaged in a common pursuit could meet, surrounded by the mute oracles of science and art; where the whole atmosphere should be as full of professional knowledge as the apothecary's shop is of the odor of his medicaments. This was what the old men longed for,--the prophets and kings of the profession, who "Desired it long, But died without the sight."

同类推荐
  • 梼杌闲评

    梼杌闲评

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 题李处士幽居

    题李处士幽居

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 洗髓经

    洗髓经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • Greville Fane

    Greville Fane

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
  • 六十种曲西厢记

    六十种曲西厢记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 古代卷·上(中国传播思想史)

    古代卷·上(中国传播思想史)

    最广泛意义的传播是一切生命物体或非生命状态物质存在的基本方式。因此有学者认为“传播行为是人类与生俱来的”①。远古时期的先民通过部落战争和长期接触、交融,终于融会成古老的华夏民族,生成了原始华夏语,并创造了实现人神沟通和人际交流的传播符号——汉字。凭着对先祖文化的认同和对原始汉语的认同,华夏民族在中华大地上生存、繁衍和发展,创造着古老的文明,经过了漫长的历史过程。其传播地域非常辽阔,传播活动非常活跃,传播方式非常丰富,我们可以从原始神话、原始巫术和古老汉字等方面去窥探先祖们的创造性传播行为,揭示这些行为背后蕴涵的原始传播思想。
  • 我亦剑狂

    我亦剑狂

    这个世界,只有剑。天剑大陆,以剑为尊,藏剑、修剑、亦为剑!一个因剑而修为尽失的少年,残缺的唤剑士,残缺的断剑……以剑之名,收尽天下神剑!!以剑之名,霸绝天下之士!!
  • 福妻驾到

    福妻驾到

    现代饭店彪悍老板娘魂穿古代。不分是非的极品婆婆?三年未归生死不明的丈夫?心狠手辣的阴毒亲戚?贪婪而好色的地主老财?吃上顿没下顿的贫困宭境?不怕不怕,神仙相助,一技在手,天下我有!且看现代张悦娘,如何身带福气玩转古代,开面馆、收小弟、左纳财富,右傍美男,共绘幸福生活大好蓝图!!!!快本新书《天媒地聘》已经上架开始销售,只要3.99元即可将整本书抱回家,你还等什么哪,赶紧点击下面的直通车,享受乐乐精心为您准备的美食盛宴吧!)
  • 奇幻旅行社

    奇幻旅行社

    在毕业求职中,数次碰壁的赵四权,误入了一家奇怪的旅行社工作,这里的人和事都让他感到好奇,年少多金的见习导游,忽男忽女的旅行社接待员,冷冰冰的旅行社会计,还有个嗜赌如命的社长。在一次次超越想象的旅行中更加坚定了赵四权的猜测,这旅行社就是个坑,旅行社社长不是人,旅行社的真正目的却是。。。。。。
  • 罪无所依

    罪无所依

    谢吴达因蓄意谋杀乔国桐的妻子唐思颖,被公安局抓捕归案,在案情陈述中谢吴达竟然在审讯室中咬舌自尽,一时造成社会轰动,案子被称为4.16大案。两年后,刚刚签署离婚协议的叶云飞,突然收到一封奇怪的来信,信封里除了一些旧报纸外,还附着一张同他合照的照片,但这并没有引起他的注意;晚饭过后,叶云飞不知怎地,开始昏昏欲睡起来,等他再次睁开眼睛的时候,竟发现自己竟出现在一处十分陌生的地方。在这里,叶云飞遇见了小乔(乔凌)、乔萧萧(大乔)、前妻萧旭、演员陈文锦,以及自己的前老板乔国桐等一些社会知名大腕,他们要在风峋岛上为乔凌举行一场盛大的婚礼,殊不知一双神秘的眼睛正在窥视着他们,也预示着一场灾难正在降临。……
  • 相思谋:妃常难娶

    相思谋:妃常难娶

    某日某王府张灯结彩,婚礼进行时,突然不知从哪冒出来一个小孩,对着新郎道:“爹爹,今天您的大婚之喜,娘亲让我来还一样东西。”说完提着手中的玉佩在新郎面前晃悠。此话一出,一府宾客哗然,然当大家看清这小孩与新郎如一个模子刻出来的面容时,顿时石化。此时某屋顶,一个绝色女子不耐烦的声音响起:“儿子,事情办完了我们走,别在那磨矶,耽误时间。”新郎一看屋顶上的女子,当下怒火攻心,扔下新娘就往女子所在的方向扑去,吼道:“女人,你给本王站住。”一场爱与被爱的追逐正式开始、、、、、、、
  • 三生劫:妖妃难嫁

    三生劫:妖妃难嫁

    她是九尾妖狐,却收了一枚凡人为徒,一心想将徒儿扑倒,最后却因救他沉睡十年!十年之后再遇,一场精心布置的阴谋与算计,最后却是相爱相杀!他为她舍弃双眼,舍弃容颜,只为以某种方式守护在她身边!她为他寻遍六界,却历经三世情劫……
  • 逆战之世界之王

    逆战之世界之王

    人和僵尸,谁才是真正的世界之王?一个人要有怎样的性格,才能在逆境中拥有逆态度,而又要经历怎样的磨难,才能在足以傲视群雄之后,依然拥有人性的闪光点?
  • 麋鹿的鹿

    麋鹿的鹿

    鹿曦,晨曦的小鹿,鹿家收养的女孩,暗恋鹿晗3年,鹿晗从没有在意她,直到有一天......
  • 神魔玄通

    神魔玄通

    一个神秘的少年,天生神力,却又不知是什么原因,导致其流落到元气稀薄的浩土原界。为了能够回到家乡,他一路披荆斩棘,历经重重磨难,终于寻求到了可以返回故土的一线希望。然而,在这里等待着他的,却仍旧是一步一杀机……在这巨大的阴谋背后,究竟隐藏着什么样的秘密?且看少年持剑纵横,揭开层层迷局,一念引天地动荡,一怒破亘古轮回!